Vicky 1913-1966

Political cartoonist 'Vicky’ was born Victor Weisz into a Hungarian-Jewish family in Berlin, Germany on 25 April 1913. He studied with the painter Tennstedt at the age of 11, and following his father died when Vicky was a teenager, he became the family breadwinner. At the age of 15, he began publishing his cartoons in the newspaper 12 Uhr Blatt, but his open opposition to Nazism made it dangerous for him to remain in Germany and in 1935 he left and settled in England. After a period of freelancing, he joined The News Chronicle as a daily cartoonist and owing to his uncompromising blend of political critique and dry humour, he became one of the most recognisable satirists in England at that time. He is perhaps best-known for his comical portrayal of the Conservative leader and Prime Minister Harold Macmillan as the character 'Supermac, however, he also made serious social commentary on world catastrophes, such as the famine in India, or racial discrimination in the pre-Civil Rights era. His work has been variously compared to twentieth-century Chinese modernist woodcuts, the prints of Käthe Kollwitz, and the paintings of George Grosz. However, commentators have noted that his cartoons are 'not as bitter as Grosz’s, and not as heavy as Kollwitz’s' (Mulk Raj Anand). In 1958, Vicky’s 14-year tenure at The News Chronicle came to an end after he clashed with the then editor-in-chief Robert Cruikshank and he relocated firstly, to The Daily Mirror, and then, finally, to The Evening Standard, where he had unparalleled liberty of expression, also contributing to the weekly New Statesman. Privately, however, this was also Vicky’s most tormented period and after suffering personal and political disillusionment, he committed suicide in London, England on 23 February 1966. His work is also in UK collections including the Government Art Collection.